Lazz

Inspiration is greatly over-rated. Discipline and application are much more important. .

I presume you mean successfully 'pitched' to other artists - because I would neither consider nor recommend transferring ownership. - How do I think about lyrics to make them less personal and more "generic pop"? I don't generally operate in the arena of 'generic pop'. Artists working in that field generally are 'branded' products in and of themselves such that a) the actual material seems less important than the image they are marketing, and they embrace the wisdom of writing their own material and hence maximising income from their own publishing. That's probably why your veteran gave you that specific piece of advice. The 'personal', I think, must be of a universal order - so that other artists can identify with and deliver the song effectively, and so that their audience can also identify with their message. - Do I have a specific target artist when writing a song? Yes - of course. A clear idea of target/targets and their audience is essential. - How much effort do we put into the demo? Serious effort. We treat it like a regular conventional recording, using studios, top musicians, and professional production standards, to make it sound as best we can (although, sometimes, we may take care that the performance is not too intimidating for the artist to whom we are shopping it). - Markting, self promotion and contacts with "the industry"? Everything depends upon networking and making friends. - Am I constantly in contact with record companies to find out what artists are shopping for songs at the moment? No - it doesn't much work like that for us. Individual artists and their management/associates, at least in our field, are the ones who know their proposed project schedules, whether they are likely interested in considering submissions, and what sort of material they may be looking for. .

Bippity-boppity-bump

"Let It Go" is another pop-hit for me. Great stuff. Good luck with this new contest. .

And I am sorry that you are sorry. Mine was merely a flippant drive-by - observational not judgemental. Meant to underline the sense that 'story' isn't an essential requirement at all. Maybe in a ballad form its omission would glare - but this is more of a pop-snapshot, I think. Not to be viewed as a negative quality. I'm looking forward to hearing Jim's recording of it. .

Don't worry about that. We mix tenses all the time. It's not graded At least I escaped. I have exactly the same problems, Tom. To me, it's merely the second ending in conventional terms. I have loads of issues around the 'pre-chorus' concept - but later for that - it's the result that counts. I don't see any story - just a lot of whining. But, like grammatical consistency, that's not really an absolute requirement to me. Unless it's a folk ballad or country song - then it seems de rigeur. . .

'Burnt' should be 'burned' throughout. Sounds better, sings better. Makes better sense. .

Like John, I thought this was a great idea. Like JD, I also felt disappointed by the lack of response. Sorry that I don’t personally participate in these exercises – I already have co-writers, and (perhaps ill-advisedly) we don’t write much in the vein of commercial pop unless specifically requested, but I fear I have never heard of Katy Perry or Kelly Clarkson. And this bit made me smile, James: … because I am not from the US at all and yet to me and everybody else I know professionally the “Middle 8” remains nothing else other than the 8-bar bridge to the standard old 32 bar form. That’s exactly what it was for John Lennon, too. Weird how we differ on terms, eh? But that did kinda put me off at first – until I heard the delivery of your rendering work on the melody – which I found completely convincing. It is a real pleasure watching this thread slowly develop into such a promising collaboration

Good one, John.

That's a relief - I'm glad it worked out ok. .

Hello Edward. If the established and accepted way you guys have been working together is for him to give you a chord progression and for you to do the rest, then it is self-evident that he has made some kind of contribution. The issue then is apportioning credit in a manner which is a reasonable and realistic reflection of that proportionality. Your choices are two: 1. Find a formula which satisfies both of you. Remember that the rule of thumb for measuring the fairness of a vexatious agreement is that both parties end up being equally pissed-off. 2. Give him back his chord progressions and say ‘bye-bye’. If you take his chord progressions and turn them into an enormous world-wide hit which generates oodles of dollars, there would be lawyers available to take his case on a contingency basis. The court in this case might likely agree that your friend indeed made a contribution. And it would then fall upon them to decide exactly how much you owed him. But you say you are reluctant to give him a piece of ownership in recognition of any value in his contribution because you “feel that would be a violation of the principle of the argument and wouldn't educate him”. We’ll ignore questions about your qualifications to educate him. But what exactly is this principle at the heart of your dispute? What is it that’s being ‘violated’? This pseudo-philosophical dispute over the semantics of music/melody is a distracting irrelevance. However you may choose to argue and justify a position, the picture I am getting is that your friend has taken some limited but active part in a joint creation and that your concern is now to devalue that contribution and reduce his share to zero. My question is this: If you believe his contribution has no value or merit, why are you messing with it ? It is possible to view this sad tale as a high-handed school-boy spat built on principles of ignorance, in which one party just wants to out-muscle the other. **** Tom says that it is not possible to copyright a chord progression. Many people would agree, but that take is a little too simplistic. The arguments and judgements in disputes between the estates of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington, for example, show that a court can be hip and discerning enough to recognise that even certain voicings and articulations of chords can be significant enough in their contribution to warrant shares in a copyright. Probably very far from your situation, admittedly, but close enough to show that a court will call ‘em as they see ‘em. Remember too, that in your jurisdiction we now have something called ‘neighbouring rights’ which is built on that very acceptance of value in different contributions to pop hits. .

Dee. Try not to overcomplicate it. Only sheer simplicity makes it so elusive. If you check out the FaceBook page for Berkleemusic Videos, and scroll down a wee bit, you can find a series called “Songwriting Tutorial”, Parts 1 – 4, in which Pat Pattison’s fine bed-side manner and attention to detail might be just the thing for helping you give sense to the idea. I hope so. It will be a real “Doh!” moment when you do get it, and realize you’re already a highly skilled practitioner with a life-time’s experience. I promise you. It’s the sound and feel of the rhythmic melody of the ways we speak quite naturally. That’s all. I have never personally understood how and why the aspiring songwriter can remain unaware of these basic pulses which drive language – our professed medium – but I have come to accept that maybe it’s a partial temporary blindness that can be fixed – and that maybe it’s to do with a person being overly word focused without working their musical muscles and sensitivities in tandem. So I think your crash course is a damn good move. Absolutely the right way to go. A first step. More. Less of a ‘should’, I think (because writers like to break ‘rules’ so there are lots of exceptions) – less of a ‘should’ than a simple observational acceptance of the fact that rhythmic music is always going to let us know quite clearly where ‘1’ is happening in each bar. Why fight it? Just sing your songs while stepping out their rhythm down the street “One always needs to know where ‘one’ is” - anon. .

What makes it really hard to prosecute an infringement is the bill for legal services. And yes, a work is copyright as soon as it is written.

Look out, Adam. I mean it - seriously - look out!! These guys are notorious They send that same letter to everyone hoping that the'll be stupid and blind and uncritical enough to believe them. It's a business model for them, that's all. DON"T DO IT!!

Kid is 13 years old, dammit. Can't wait 'til his hands are as big as Anthony Jackson's and his conception matures even more. Brasil produces so many stunning players about whom the wider world outside remain blithely unaware - this small guy ("Little Popcorn" is what his nickname means) is under the special care of Arthur Maia, another phenomenal bassist few have heard of. Thanks for posting this, John - it encourages me to believe the future of music is bright. .

Whatever your ultimate decision, no reason to let that £75 Hammond get away. .

I had been hoping to get an answer to my question from someone. (And it is NOT "feigned misapprehension") It won't change the pleasure I got from it even if it does affect just how impressed I might be by the achievement. I would just like clarification, please. Thanks. .

It is pretty. But I don't quite get it. Des the upper case "ALL CGI" truly mean that 'everything' we see is in the piece is computer-generated ? The architecture ? The foliage ? The clouds ? The camera ? Had to look up this new (to me) use of the word 'compositing', too. Only previously familiar with the term in the setting of cold type - another dead art. .

Don't wink at me..... Maybe we need to shape a spec for what we think this core info should cover. .

Has to be done, then. No question. (But I don't play anything.) What do you need to hear? .

Yeah. Pat McFeeney (as I heard it from an Irish scalper outside a Hammersmith Odeon PM gig) is lovely, and does some wonderfully moving music. And no – I have no answer for the simplicity-beauty question. Wish that I did. .

Maybe that should be part of a basic “Musicians’ Survival Kit” available on Songstuff. Maybe musicians who know should be helping those who don’t. Ha. In terms of artist-management and some label activities and operations, there are a few stories I am not allowed to tell. I agree. They aren’t fun – but they’re not that bad or difficult, either – it’s all easily taken care of – and it’s beneficial to the musicians.*** For a venue hosting live-music, though, and not your average individual up-and-coming musician, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to hold a different set of expectations about knowledge, legality and relevance. *** For a guy like our Thomas, in Glasgow, for example, playing his own music in an ever widening circuit – if I was him, I’d be having a friendly chat with PRS, signing up (it’s free, and he meets the criteria), registering my songs, and picking up a pad of forms and carrying them around for whenever I play a venue with a license. I’d be in less of a rush to join the MU: First, there’s no obligatory requirement to do so; Second, the gigs he does probably aren’t happening at scale anyway; Third, it only starts to become useful where you’re chasing the sorts of gig opportunities that are governed by established union agreements – like Radio or TV or sessions or Film. ..

It all amazes and impresses me, too. I think it's all down to the experience of accumulated practice. And I think the talent lies in learning how to apply it. Seems to get easier the more we get used to applying it and just becoming familiar with the language. Practice - like everything else - helps us to recognise more clearly that a minor chord with b13 and b9 must be working as a III chord. I found that applying the same process of chord-generation to minor scales gets even more exciting and revealing. Good for Zander !! I'm only aware of a few of those teachers - but everyone has something special to offer. The important thing, I reckon, is that Z meets similar enthusiasts, finds people with whom he can play everyday in ensemble situations, and builds his network of contacts for his future. .

Phew !! That's nice to hear. I thought I'd just been talking to the wind. It was a light-bulb moment for me, too, when someone took the trouble to sit me down at a piano and lay the revelation out before me in plain sight. Seems really difficult to approach that clarity in text on forums - so I am relieved and chuffed that it worked for you. .

Venues do not report works which are performed on their premises. If the job is to get done at all, the responsibility has to be assumed by the performing artist or their representative. If the performing artist is also the composer, there is greater motivation to take care of business. If nobody bothers with this paperwork, the licence revenue gets distributed amongst members according to formulae. The question then becomes whether these formulae are at all fair or representative. They are not. As for educating people about the processes, I’ve never thought of this as a job for Musicians’ Associations. Although I know my old MU in the UK would sometimes get a speaker in from PRS to answer questions, it’s more rightfully a job for composers’ organizations. Both PRS and SOCAN have regular seminars and workshops to help get people up to speed. I don’t know about the other PROs but would imagine they all do the same in service of their membership. Shouldn’t be too difficult to find out. Definitely. But it doesn’t make them the mafia. .